Oasis "Don't Believe the Truth" - May 31

Michael Allred · 05-25-2005, 02:00 PM

The new album from Oasis, "Don't Believe the Truth", is released May 31st as both a regular CD and a Dualdisc.

http://www.sonymusicstore.com/store/...48&skuId=84158

Tracklisting:
1. Turn Up The Sun
2. Mucky Fingers
3. Lyla
4. Love Like A Bomb
5. The Importance Of Being Idle
6. The Meaning Of Soul
7. Guess God Thinks I'm Abel
8. Part Of The Queue
9. Keep The Dream Alive
10. A Bell Will Ring
11. Let There Be Love

The Dualdisc release apparently contains the standard album on side 1, then on side 2 the album remixed into 5.1 surround. The Sony web page also mentions the following bits on side 2:

1. The Ear Has No Memory
2. Lyla

I'm not sure what "The Ear Has No Menory" is, perhaps a documentary? "Lyla" might be a music video.

Anyway, I bought the first single, "Lyla" and listened to it this past weekend and sadly it sucks badly. I was surprised this was their choice as the first single, it's barely worthy of B-side staus. I hope the album offers better material.

ChrisMatson · 05-25-2005, 02:37 PM

Sample tracks here:
http://www.mtve.com/article.php?ArticleId=5618

RollingStone's review:

Quote:

Watching Oasis' precipitous decline from Brit-pop superstardom has sort of been like watching the Yankees blow it last October: You knew they had it coming, but it was still kind of sad to see. Don't Believe the Truth, their seventh album, isn't the comeback fans have long been praying for, but it's the first Oasis album in years that doesn't sound like pale self-imitation. The bigger presence of guitarist Gem Archer as well as an increased emphasis on texture - including plenty of subdued psych-rock atmosphere - rescue confidently rockin' winners such as "The Meaning of Soul" from the kind of dunderheaded grand gestures Oasis had gotten increasingly worse at writing, and tracks like "The Importance of Being Idle" channel laid-back Sixties-pop cool. So: Now that they've fought off complacency and cocaine, can we get that Behind the Music episode?

1/2

Grant B · 05-25-2005, 10:28 PM

I like the single the few times I heard it.

We have great seats when they play the Hollywood Bowl so I really hope it's good and also comes out in SACD

Oh and loose the Damn Compression they have been turning up lately

Robert_eb · 05-31-2005, 11:37 AM

I just purchased this disc on the dualdisc format.

I thought these were supposed to be in 5.1?

It's just in pcm 2.0 unless i'm not looking in the right place??

05-31-2005, 03:11 PM

Robert, there's no fixed content to the DVD side of a Dualdisc re: sound formats. I picked this up myself, and was myself wondering if "enhanced stereo" was PCM or DVD-audio (which I severely doubted).

We're basically getting on Dualdisc what is a CD & DVD combo abroad. Although the combo in the UK may also have some interview material. Perhaps someone who has the combo can say!

**HTF Ads**

AricB · 05-31-2005, 03:15 PM

sony released dual discs will not have DVD-Audio high res tracks. They may or may not, have Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, varies per title.

Ron Reda · 05-31-2005, 05:02 PM

From allmusic.com (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...y8ibk59dakm~T1):

Since Oasis has an instantly identifiable, seemingly simple signature sound — gigantic, lumbering, melodic, and inevitable, as if their songs have always existed and always will — it can be hard to pinpoint what separates a great Oasis song from a merely mediocre tune. It could be anything from overblown production to a diminished swagger, or it could be a self-satisfied laziness in the songwriting, or a panicky attempt to update their defiantly classicist pop with an electronic shine. All of these problems plagued the group's records since their blockbuster 1995 blockbuster second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, and while none of the three albums that followed were outright bad, by 2002's Heathen Chemistry it seemed that even Noel and Liam Gallagher had lost sight of what made Oasis great. While that record had its moments, it often seemed generic, suggesting that the group had painted itself into a corner, not knowing where to go next. Surely, all the reports from the recording of their long-gestating sixth album suggested a faint air of desperation. First, the electronica duo Death in Vegas was brought in as producers, bringing to mind the band's awkward attempts at electronica fusion on Be Here Now and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but those recordings were scrapped, and then their second drummer, Alan White, left only to be replaced by Zak Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr, suggesting that the Gallaghers were coming perilously close to being swallowed by their perennial Beatles fixation.

All of which makes the resulting album, Don't Believe the Truth, a real shock. It's confident, muscular, uncluttered, tight, and tuneful in a way Oasis haven't been since Morning Glory. It doesn't feel labored nor does it sound as if they're deliberately trying to recreate past glories. Instead, it sounds like they've remembered what they love about rock & roll and why they make music. They sound reinvigorated, which is perhaps appropriate, because Don't Believe the Truth finds Oasis to be quite a different band than it was a decade ago. Surely, Noel is still the first among equals, writing the majority of the songs here and providing the musical direction that the rest follow, but his brother Liam, bassist Andy Bell, and guitarist Gem Archer are now full and equal partners, and the band is the better for it. Where Noel struggled to fill the post-Morning Glory albums with passable album tracks (having squandered his backlog of great songs on B-sides), he's now happy to have Bell and Archer write Noel soundalikes that are sturdier than the filler he's created over the last five years. These likeable tunes are given soul and fire by Liam, who not only reclaims his crown as the best singer in rock on this album, but comes into his own as a songwriter. He had written good songs before, but here he holds his own with his brother, writing lively, hooky, memorable songs with "Love Like a Bomb," "The Meaning of Soul," and "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel," which are as good as anything Noel has written for the album. Which is not an aspersion on Noel, who has a set of five songs that cut for cut are his strongest and liveliest in years. Whether it's the insistent stomp of "Mucky Fingers" or the Kinks-styled romp of "The Importance of Being Idle," these songs are so good it makes sense that Noel has kept them for himself, singing four of the five tunes himself (including the soaring closing duet "Let There Be Love," the brothers' best joint vocal since "Acquiesce"). But the key to this new incarnation of Oasis is that this move by Noel doesn't seem like he's hoarding his best numbers, or a way to instigate sibling rivalry with Liam. Instead, it emphasizes that Oasis is now a genuine band, a group of personalities that form together to form one gang of charming rogues. Apart from the tremendous, rambling "Lyla" that channels the spirit of the Faces and the occasional ramshackle echo of Beggars Banquet, there's not much musically different here than other Oasis albums — it's still a blend of British Invasion, the Jam, and the Smiths, all turned to 11 — but their stubborn fondness of classic British guitar pop is one of the things that makes Oasis great and lovable. And, of course, it's also what makes it hard to discern exactly what separates good from great Oasis, but all the little details here, from the consistent songwriting to the loose, comfortable arrangements and the return of their trademark bravado makes Don't Believe the Truth the closest Oasis has been to great since the summer of Britpop, when they were the biggest and best band in the world.

Michael Allred · 05-31-2005, 05:48 PM

I bought the Dualdisc but the issue is the album itself and I'm again sad to say this one is a real clunker. There isn't a single song on here that I have to listen to again and again. Everything just sounds like filler! What a disappointment! Every Oasis album had at LEAST 3-4 songs that I instantly liked but it looks like Oasis have lost their steam.

My only hope now is that the B-sides on the future singles will provide some enjoyment.

At least my purchase included a 5 track live EP with it from 1994.

Robert_eb · 05-31-2005, 08:31 PM

I just don't know the point of having a dual disc release with the dvd side being pcm stereo.

Why not make a 5.1 mix?? It sounds so much better.

Michael Allred · 06-01-2005, 03:51 PM

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